By Kelsey Knipshild | Posted: Wednesday December 9, 2015
On the weekend of the 28th of November over 31,000 people around New Zealand marched for action on climate change. I went to the climate march with my family.
There was an amazing range of ages, from toddlers in prams to old age pensioners. We listened to lot of motivating speeches before the march and were taught some chant to sing as we marched. The People’s Climate March was being organised by an increasing number of organisations who had joined together to try and make our government wake up and see what was happening around them, while they kept on protecting and helping polluters to continue polluting our planet. The message was simple; it is time to make a decision. Will we continue trying to protect our children, our grandchildren, our great grandchildren, our friends and neighbours or will we stand by, let people continue polluting our world and our family while our ecosystem plummets to the ground around us. How is the government dealing with climate change? Peter Hardstaff, WWF New Zealand climate change campaigner, said “Climate Change Minister Tim Groser is travelling around the world talking up New Zealand’s leading role in reforming fossil fuels subsidies, while back home Energy Minister Simon Bridges is giving handouts to the oil and gas industry. This smacks of hypocrisy and further undermines New Zealand’s reputation on climate change, which has already taken a hammering from pulling out of binding global commitments under Kyoto II.” The time for real climate action is now.
Written by Katherine Rutter